To Move a Mountain: A consideration of Sanditon, Ep. 8, Gone with the Wind and The Sound of Music

"To Move a Mountain" or 

"A Clifftop View of Grief"

I have now watched Sanditon's Episode 8 countless times since first viewing it in July. It's a conundrum. The first time I watched I was almost in disbelief that the show that only moments ago had been bringing me such joy, now felt like it was abruptly ripping off one of my limbs. The shocking end was so severe I sat in silence, stunned. I couldn't even cry at the time because I was so dazed. 

Sidney did the thing I thought he'd never do. Our Jane Austen hero--our dashing, strong, heart of gold Sidney said goodbye to his true love Charlotte. I kept thinking there must be some mistake. There must be a bonus scene coming up, after the credits even. Surely, Sidney wouldn't just stand by and watch Charlotte leave Sanditon. He might be as stunned as I was and need a few minutes to process, then he would jump back on his horse and chase her down the clifftop road. I should add, I don't blame Sidney and I'm not angry with him for his response to this completely unfair situation (well maybe angry he didn't speak to Charlotte first). I'm mostly sad and so frustrated about it.  Perhaps then Charlotte would jump out of the carriage, run over to Sidney and say "Sidney, don't marry her. I know you love me. We can figure this out together!" It's Charlotte after all. She is fearless and time and again, we've seen her step up and get things done.

But no, it didn't happen either. I was so confused as I watched Sidney breathless with despair and Charlotte crying in the coach as the camera cut off suddenly with a closeup of her despondent face.  "The powers that be" wouldn't be so sadistic as to end on a heartbreaking separation of our lead couple, would they? Guess so. The confusion I felt quickly transformed into an aching, giant pit in my stomach. We were given a clifftop view to the enormity of grief, as endless, daunting and deep as the ocean. The feeling of immense grief I felt kicked in the worst feeling of all, regret. It brought me back to my own first and only real heartbreak in my twenties.  You never forget that feeling. But I kept thinking on Charlotte and Sidney. What could've been? I've been wondering ever since because even after 4 months of processing it, I have found no peace about the conclusion of Episode 8. I know it wasn't intended to be the end of the series and I can't accept it as a finale in any capacity.

And so here I am, incessantly thinking about it and realizing I'm a grown woman obsessing over a fictional couple. It's just a story but nonetheless it torpedoed its way into my heart.  Maybe it's the symbolism that gets to me, the pain of bad things happening to good people or maybe it's just me needing to believe in my "And she lived happily ever after" Jane Austen mantra.  In my fictional escapes, I don't want to accept that love doesn't necessarily prevail and we don't always get what we want. I already get that. 

Coincidentally, in my first blog post on Sanditon I mistakenly referred to Charlotte as Charlotte Parker because that is how much my mind processes her and Sidney together, forever. I just need the story to catch up to my mind.

After analyzing the episode countless times now, doing closeups on both Charlotte and Sidney's faces and letting Ruth Barrett's gorgeous soundtrack sink into my bones, I had to find a silver lining to process it. It's the only way I can live with the show. I found myself thinking about how in fiction anything is possible--even miracles. As bleak as things appear, everything's on the table for season 2 and Charlotte and Sidney can miraculously be reunited. I must say it again--it's fiction! We want this. Real life is already a tragedy enough to fill thousands of volumes of books.

We turn to art and stories so often for escape and not just to mirror the harsher reality of life. We want and need to have hope. It's healthy and built into our coping mechanism for life. It's worth noting that in real life people really do move mountains for love too. It's the greatest force on earth. 

There are two iconic films I think about in relation to the ending of Episode 8 and how to grapple with it. They are Gone with the Wind and The Sound of Music. When I say I'm grappling with Episode 8, I'm thinking about how to come to a resolution about the gut-wrenching cliffhanger and set the stage for Season 2. I like to imagine what happened just after the camera cuts away at the end of Ep. 8 and what could happen still.   

I'll start with Gone with the Wind. Sidney always expresses so much through his intense, soulful eyes whether it's flirting, anger or vulnerability. In the final scene, his eyes reveal his utter devastation as he watches Charlotte's carriage leave Sanditon. He may be a strong man on the outside, but he's broken within. Watching him conjured up none other than consummate diva Scarlett O'Hara for me. What on earth could Victorian era Southern belle Scarlett have in common with Regency stud Sidney? Well, not much on the surface. But hear me out—they are both full of moxie and shrewdly intelligent. With passionate, dark tempers they are often misunderstood. Aren't those qualities the heart of who they are? Yes, they lost their true loves for very different reasons and one could say Scarlett is a selfish person and Sidney is selfless. But I focus on the fact that they both know what it's like to be completely back against the wall desperate when all has been lost when it comes to love and money. It's that desperation that fuels anger and a resolve to fight back.

I was haunted by the desperation in Sidney's eyes on the clifftop. The weight of the world was on his shoulders with a crushing debt to be paid back through the engagement to Mrs. Campion. He was forced to let Charlotte go as the alternative was seeing his brother in debtor's prison. It pained me so much.  I started to will him to turn his devastation into motivation and fuel his mission to win back Charlotte. I kept thinking of Scarlett O'Hara and wanting him to raise his fist in the air in defiance, let the profound sense of anger wash over him, and shout back at the world “No! I don’t accept this!”  I want him to resolve to fight back against the cruel and twisted fate life has dealt him. Why should he accept this? He's a self-made man and he can create his destiny.

When we last see him, Sidney is standing on the clifftop, almost gasping for breath. Completely gutted.   His labored breathing reminds me of a wounded animal clinging to life. I've always viewed Sidney as a wild stallion full of exotic beauty and brute strength that couldn't be tamed until Charlotte came along, but more on that later in another post.

There are two iconic lines that Scarlett says that give me hope for Sidney. From Filmsite https://www.filmsite.org/soun3.html : "Then, standing alone on a rise in the field, suffering the deprivations of war, an indomitable Scarlett slowly rises and with clenched fists raised toward heaven, resiliently and defiantly vows that she is unbroken by her tribulations. The Tara theme of the film also rises on the soundtrack. She will be transformed and will soon rise from the ashes of the war-ravaged land at Tara, remembering what she was taught by her father in happier times - it is one of the film's most dramatic, famous scenes":

"As God is my witness, as God is my witness, they're not going to lick me! I'm going to live through this, and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again - no, nor any of my folks! If I have to lie, steal, cheat, or kill! As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again."

It still gives me goosebumps. Scarlett with clenched fist shows that her fighting spirit is intact. On the clifftop, I can imagine these very lines went through Sidney's mind as he watched Charlotte's carriage ride off. He is shaken to his core but we need him to rise from the ashes of the Sanditon fire just as Scarlett rises from the ashes of war. The first step is allowing his desperation to transform into determination. We need him to channel his anger and passion to fight for what he truly wants. He wants Charlotte to be his wife. As he said, he had never wanted to put himself in someone else's power before he met Charlotte.

Sidney thought he needed to say goodbye to Charlotte to have a proper parting as she taught him previously, but he had no idea how devastating it would be. Initially, he wanted to ensure that she wouldn't think badly of him because her opinion was so important to him. He thought he'd find peace getting this validation from her and that might be enough to close the chapter. But as he shuts the door to her carriage and she looks away, we see the agony painted across his face. His mouth drops open a bit as if he's stunned and incapacitated by what is happening. With her maintaining strength and dignity in the face of this heartbreak, encouraging him to live up to his promise and try to make Mrs. Campion happy, he recognizes her selflessness and all he admires in her. Once again, he sees her actions make him a better a man. Without a doubt, he now knows that Charlotte is the love of his life. He realized right then she was taking an essential part of him--his best and truest self--with her. As he watches her carriage ride away, it hits him like a ton of bricks that he can't live like this as the shell of a man.

In the continuation of the scene in my mind (after the camera cuts away), I see him fall to his knees in agony shedding tears . But then after releasing his pain and regaining his breath, I see him like Scarlett, defiant. In my version, he raises his fist in resolve and makes a declaration, whispered to the cliffs around him as he watches Charlotte's carriage get smaller in the distance: "Wait for me." I know in my heart that he will do whatever it takes to win her back in season 2, and in the story that lives on in our hearts, because fighting for Charlotte is also an act of self-preservation for him. We have an innate will to survive and Sidney is fighting a battle for his very soul.

Scarlett closes Gone with the Wind with her iconic declaration. Even though Rhett has left her for good saying, "Frankly my dear I don't give a damn" she vows to fight for him:

"I can't let him go. I can't. There must be some way to bring him back. Oh I can't think about this now! I'll go crazy if I do! I'll think about it tomorrow. But I must think about it. I must think about it. What is there to do? What is there that matters? I'll go home. And I'll think of some way to get him back. After all...tomorrow is another day."

Our final image is of a resilient Scarlett. She decides to go home to regain her strength and create a plan to reunite with Rhett, the man she realized was the love of her life. And in the sequel, she eventually got her man. Hey, maybe another author wrote the book, but it's fiction and anything can happen! Scarlett is restored to her stubborn, determined self. She's a fighter who will never quit. We need for Sidney to have this transformation as well and to embrace his inner fighting spirit and not accept living a half-life.

I saw wheels start to spin in Sidney's eyes standing on the clifftop when he realizes just how emotionally impacted he is by Charlotte's departure. I don't think he understood the depth of his love for Charlotte when he did the sensible thing in engaging himself to Mrs. Campion as an act of duty to his family. He chose marriage as a business arrangement. I think there is a real glimmer there in his eyes--like a match being lit that makes a spark. This spark is the very first awareness dawning on him that he can't abide by this fate. As a passionate man, he will realize he must choose love over duty because the alternative would lead to the death of him.

Sidney is also by nature a man of action and "a man of affairs" as his brother Tom. He is smart, he is strong and he is brave and I see the resolve in his eyes as the smallest seed of hope that is planted on the clifftop. After all, this is a man that was brave enough to sail thousands of miles from his home to Antigua to begin anew, brave and strong enough to jump off a moving carriage at full speed to save Georgiana, a man who raced to the scene when Old Stringer broke his leg and one of the first to grab a fire hose to battle the flames during the Midsummer's Ball tragedy. He is not a man to stand idly by.

So on that clifftop, it's this internal awareness of who he really is that will change the course of his life. And that's enough for now. He doesn't need to know what his plan will be, or any of the steps yet, but it's important to see him not rolling over in acceptance. There is a huge mountain now between him and Charlotte. Yes, he will likely fall into some of his old ways, closing himself off, drinking and boxing to dull the pain. But Sidney will find a way to climb this mountain when he learns to channel his anger into energy. He's done it before and he can do it again. Love is the most powerful force in the world and Sidney is armed in spades with true love.

******************************

The other movie that comes to mind when I watch the end of Ep. 8 is The Sound of Music. This movie makes me think about how Charlotte is a lot like Maria. She has the same spunk and bravery mixed with innocence and kind-heartedness. Sidney's family adores her just as Captain Von Trapp’s children adored Maria. She also has an awakening into womanhood with Sidney just as Maria does with the Captain. Now, we just need Charlotte to be brave enough to go back to Sanditon to fight for the life that she wants, just as Maria left the Abbey. We need her to lean into her resiliency. 

When Charlotte learned Sidney was engaged to Mrs. Campion she left Sanditon to retreat to her hometown of Willingden. But she shouldn't stay there. Maria leaves the safe refuge of the Abbey to go back to the Captain's house even though she knows he's engaged because she missed him and the children. The Reverend Mother told her "you have to look for your life." We can not live life passively. You have to go after and seek what you want out of life.

There are three pivotal scenes of dialogue that especially remind me of Sanditon. Initially, Maria accepts her fate and wishes the Captain and Baroness "every happiness" on their upcoming marriage, just as Charlotte wished for Sidney when he told her he was obliged to engage himself to Eliza Campion in Ep.8.

I've pulled these lines from FilmSite: https://www.filmsite.org/soun3.html

The Captain walks down the steps to greet Maria and to ask why she left - but she is devastated and can't answer. She decides to stay only until he finds a new governess:

Captain: You left without saying goodbye, even to the children.

Maria: It was wrong of me, forgive me.

Captain: Why did you?

Maria: Please don't ask me. Anyway, the reason no longer exists.

Baroness: Fraulein Maria, you've returned. Isn't it wonderful, Georg?

 Maria: May I wish you every happiness, Baroness? And you too, Captain. The children tell me you're to be married.

Baroness: Thank you, my dear.

Captain: You are back to, uh, stay?

Maria: Only until arrangements can be made for another governess.

That evening in a blue dress, Maria walks near the lake and gazes up at the night sky, thinking about her life and its dilemmas. From his balcony's terrace, the Captain also appears and looks down at her - connected across the distance. Elsa follows toward him and rattles on about what wedding gift she should give him: "...I do want you to have some little trifle for the occasion. At first, I thought of a fountain pen but you've already got one. And then, I thought perhaps a villa in the south of France, but they are so difficult to gift wrap...And where to go on our honeymoon - now that is a real problem. I thought a trip around the world would be lovely. Yet I said, 'Oh Elsa, there must be someplace better to go.'" After some mutual soul-searching, they both decide to gracefully break off their engagement: Captain: It's no use, you and I. I'm being dishonest to both of us and utterly unfair to you. When two people talk of marriage... Elsa: No, don't, don't say another word, Georg, please? You see, uh, there are other things I've been thinking of. Fond as I am of you, I really don't think you're the right man for me. You're much too independent and I need someone who needs me desperately, or at least needs my money desperately. I've enjoyed every moment we've had together. I do thank you for that. Now, if you'll forgive me, I'll go inside, pack my little bags, and return to Vienna where I belong. And somewhere out there is a young lady who I think will never be a nun.

The Captain readily joins Maria by the pavilion, and asks two questions:

"Why did you run away to the Abbey?"

"What was it that made you come back?"

According to Maria, she "had an obligation to fulfill and I came back to fulfill it..And I missed the children." He explains that "nothing was the same" while she was away and "it'll be all wrong again" after she leaves again. He attempts to persuade her to change her mind and stay longer. And then he tells her that his engagement to the Baroness is off: "There isn't going to be any Baroness...well, we've, uhm, called off our engagement, you see...Well, you can't marry someone when you're in love with someone else, can you?" He holds her tenderly by the chin and draws her lips nearer for a kiss. Relieved, Maria has had her prayers answered:

Maria: "The Reverend Mother always says, 'when the Lord closes a door, somewhere he opens a window'."

 Captain: "What else does the Reverend Mother say?"

 Maria: "That you have to look for your life."

 Captain: "Is that why you came back?" (She nods) And have you found it Maria?

 Maria: "I think I have. I know I have."

 Captain: "I love you."

 Maria: "Oh, can this be happening to me?"

Like Maria, Charlotte initially retreats from the competition--Eliza aka, the Baroness. But at heart, Charlotte is a brave and determined young woman. She may be back home in Willingden licking her wounds but in season 2 we will see her regain her strength and confidence. I'd love to see her go back to Sanditon and actively fight for what she wants. She not only fell in love with Sidney, but she fell in love with the town of Sanditon and all of the possibilities there. So she must go back and claim what is hers. In my ideal season 2, Sidney and Charlotte are both active in finding a way back to eachother. Neither is passive sitting idly by.

The realistic thing might be for the Captain to marry the very wealthy and elegant Baroness. But the story allows love to prevail and the Captain realizes his heart lies with Maria, and the Baroness steps aside. 

I also think it would be an amazing twist if Eliza ended up being more like the Baroness in choosing to be dignified enough to call off her engagement. Could we see Eliza evolve in Season 2 and even become a character we sympathize with rather than a villain? Can she be redeemed? If she truly loved and respected Sidney, she would honor their youthful bond and she'd want to see him happy and thus release him. If she held her head up high, refusing to attach herself to a man clearly in love with another woman, she'd open the door to finding new love for herself too. Can you imagine how a redeemed Eliza would inspire dozens of new fan fictions in her search for love?

These two iconic movies remind me of what is possible despite Sanditon's current, heartbreaking cliffhanger conclusion in Ep. 8. In fiction, love can prevail no matter the odds. In fact, the greater the odds, the greater the love story and the richer and more rewarding the happily ever after will be. I am channeling fairy Godmother Lady Susan here--"Do not lose heart. The race is not yet run. When it comes to love, there is no such thing as a foregone conclusion." There is a happy ending waiting for us in Sanditon, just around the corner.

As Jane Austen said:  "My characters shall have, after a little trouble, all that they desire."

Someday soon, I know my beloved Charlotte and Sidney will be reunited. We must keep the faith. 

Those mountains will move.

As Deep as the Ocean: An Appreciation of Sanditon 🌊🌊🌊 Second Post: 10 years later!

It's been 10 years since I've written in this blog. Somehow life got in the way and days turned into weeks that turned into years. I started this as a single, publishing professional living in Brooklyn.  Now, I live in Los Angeles and I'm a mom but still work in publishing and still love books and the power of words. 2020 has been an exceptionally unique and challenging year as we live through a global pandemic. The Covid crisis pushed many of us indoors in an effort to keep safe and stop the spread. 10 months in, the year has been marked by political and social unrest which have only further exacerbated the stress of living through the pandemic. Even as I write this, just days after our presidential election, there's chaos and extreme division with the outcome of the election still undecided.  To navigate this very rocky terrain of 2020, I sought to reconnect with old loves, needing comfort and familiarity. I needed things that would soothe like a cup of tea.  

So, I started reading old favorite books like Pride & Prejudice and Anne of Green Gables and throwing myself into watching every period drama I could find. I binge watched Downton Abbey, Poldark, The Forsyte Saga, Belgravia, Pride & Prejudice, Emma, Sense & Sensibility, and many more. Some of the shows were new to me, but I've been a sucker for historical romance since I was a young teen. In college, I took a class on Jane Austen and devoured all of her books, particularly struck by the timeless love in Persuasion and how someone could "pierce your soul" so much that no amount of time or distance could diminish the impact.  I remember the very moment I read this line in my dorm and my breathe caught it was so beautiful.  I still have my beat up, underlined paperbacks and that line in Persuasion will always get to me.  In March, when lockdown started in LA, I began watching these shows again in earnest. I'd finish a series and then immediately seek a new one to dive into. It's been an escape and a refuge in a scary and uncertain time. 

Somehow, that led me down the rabbit hole to discovering Sanditon. This unfinished Jane Austen novel, the last she ever wrote before her untimely death, has become a touchstone for me in 2020. I was completely swept away by this story and because it ended on a heartbreaking cliffhanger, with the hero Sidney Parker and heroine Charlotte Parker painfully separated by the unfairness and cruelty of life, it affected me deeply.  As the show writers would say, "I'm all at sea." To make matters much, much worse I discovered there was no season 2 in the works. I couldn't stop thinking about the show and the devastating cliffhanger and analyzing it. Perhaps I was obsessing over it.  I viscerally felt like I had suffered my own very painful loss, it was so acute. I needed to figure out a way to rescue the characters.

All I could do to cope with the devastating "ending" was seek out more information on the show and from there I discovered the Sanditon community online, joining the fandom campaigning for a second season (truthfully, this is the only time I've ever been interested in social media or any fan group. I was pleasantly surprised to find a lot of like-minded fans who are creative and funny and just as passionate about the show). I began re-watching the show, memorizing all the lines of dialogue, discovering new little nuances and intricacies the actors put into each scene and I truly gained a new respect for their craft.

Is it possible to become a period drama groupie? I think I became one! I've never thought much about the actual craft of acting before Sanditon, just going along for the entertainment ride. Now that I pick apart each scene, I truly can appreciate the sheer talent of actors in bringing these beloved stories to life and how essential their perspectives are in building the characters and interpreting the story.

What's perhaps most special to me about Sanditon though is that it inspired me to start writing again. Not just the writing I do for work everyday as a book publicist, but it inspired me to do my own creative writing. I had such a passion for creative writing when I was a child and into my twenties. But I let it go as I focused more on work and the pressure of promoting the books of the authors I worked with at major publishing houses. I probably felt I needed a clear separation between work and personal life to manage it all.  So, over the years I forgot what it was like to be fired up about my own story ideas. The fire just sort of burned out with the day to day hectic-ness of life. Re-awakening my own creative spark is perhaps the greatest gift of Sanditon.

I started watching Sanditon in July, 4 months into lockdown and like many other fans who were gutted after episode 8, I immediately started writing my own series 2 of how our hero and heroine could be reunited. I had to get all my ideas down and can't remember feeling so driven about a story since I wrote short stories as a teen. The painful ending no doubt affected me harder as I grappled with depressing Covid news daily and months of home time when I'd normally be busy travelling for work and visiting friends and family across the country.  I couldn't believe I completely missed the boat when Sanditon first aired in the US in January. But I didn't hear a word of it or see any of the promotion. I now view the year through a pre-Sanditon and post-Sanditon lens because the show has brought me such joy and angst.

I can't truly articulate why I fell so deeply for Sanditon and why I fell in love with an unfinished story. But in this year of unprecedented trauma, I just know that it captured my imagination in a way that I don't recall feeling since I was a kid, staying up late to read paperbacks under the covers of my bed long after my parents told me I had to go to sleep before school the next day.  I always loved books and I chose a career in publishing where I'd be surrounded by books everyday. But honestly speaking, I haven't felt that pure excitement about a story that pulled me in with every fiber of my mind, heart and body in years.  I binged 7 episodes one night, taking my tablet to bed as I couldn't tear myself away. I realized the sun would rise in a few hours and I desperately needed some sleep before an early workday. Somehow, I’d been transported back to that kid who stayed up late getting lost in a story.  So, I paused to watch episode 8 the following night.

I was in complete bliss the first half of the episode. After all the angst and push and pull of the previous 7 episodes, Charlotte and Sidney acknowledged their feelings on the clifftop with a mesmerizing kiss. Sidney was poised to propose to her at that evening's ball. Then suddenly when the fire hit in the second half of the episode, I trembled with an ominous feeling. By the clifftop farewell ending, I was absolutely gutted. It was such a severe ending it seemed certain they cut it off prematurely. It had to be wrong. I kept imagining and willing Sidney's horse to keeping going and run after Charlotte. I can't remember having such a painful reaction to a show, but I felt sick to my stomach. It was like I really knew these characters who were both left devastated and I cried along with them.  I felt as if I had suffered my own terrible breakup. It was a physical, throbbing pain and an emptiness in my stomach. The actors clearly did an amazing job with their heart-wrenching performance, but also because the story is unfinished, and Austen's novel was just a few chapters of a story she never got to fully realize-- it's just pained me deeply. What could have been? What was meant to be? 

On a brighter note, it's also left me hopeful that there can be endless possibilities in store for Sanditon and this special world of characters. There should be no limits when it comes to love.  As a reminder of this, soon after finishing the show, I hung up a large Jane Austen "And She Lived Happily Ever After" print showing a stack of her books and cup of tea above my desk. I felt like I was 13 years old again trying to believe in fairy tales. But who cares? In this bizarre year, I need that simple affirmation close to me. It makes me happy when I look at it. It reminds me to believe in the power of stories. The print stays put!

 

When I started on the Sanditon journey, the beautiful, seaside setting, and ethereal music first drew me into this magical world. The characters were intriguing and witty, and the story kept a quick pace, with equal doses of humor and heart and plenty of suspense. The brilliant, opposites attract hero and heroine sealed the deal. There were so many moments that took my breath away from the Golden Dance at the London ball to the rowing scene at the regatta to Sidney and Charlotte's spellbinding clifftop kiss, one of the most beautiful I've ever seen in cinema.  I immediately connected with the heroine Charlotte Heywood on so many levels. Yes, she reminded me of the heroine of one of the first books I truly loved as a child, Anne of Green Gables, this gutsy, spirited small town gal who takes on new adventures in a new place. She also reminded me of me somehow too, moving to NYC after college, wide-eyed and ready to explore.

Watching the first episode when Charlotte looks out of the coach window as she arrives in Sanditon, full of wonder and anticipation, I recalled a train ride I took more than 20 years ago into NYC looking out the window at all the lights sparkling like diamonds in the night sky. My heart pounded as I felt the same wonder and longing to be there--I just knew I wanted to walk among those lights. But like Charlotte, I'd also grow up and learn that reality can be painfully different than our perception.  The city was indeed exciting and full of magic, but it was also harsh and exhausting. I learned you must take the good with the bad to move forward. You'll get plenty of both in life.  

As a coping mechanism in waiting for a possible season 2, I was thrilled to discover the community of talented fan fiction writers who also plotted out hypothetical scenarios to reunite our hero and heroine and even created new worlds based on Sanditon characters.  I have now read dozens of fan fictions about Sanditon though prior to July, I didn't even know what fanfiction was. It's uncanny to me that I haven't gotten my fill yet. It may be another addiction, but I have not tired of reading these stories and theorizing on the many different scenarios for Charlotte and Sidney to find their way back to each other.  I love that we can breathe new life into these characters and give them our own happily ever after. Believing in endless possibilities is one of my mantras for life. In many ways, these stories are like writing a "choose your own adventure" story and we get to drive the narrative. 

I have now watched Sanditon more times than I can count because I adore it so much.  It's an absolute tragedy it's been left unfinished but that is for another post I will write. What I especially love about the show is how it encourages me to make connections to other pieces of art and stories.  I'm often recalling other books, films, songs, poems and even paintings that remind me of the show. I thought deeply on the poems of Lord Byron and found myself freshly mesmerized by Gustav Klimt's gorgeous painting of two lovers in a sacred embrace, "The Kiss". How wonderful it's been to re-discover art through fresh eyes after having viewed Sanditon and to discover new artists and writers. I don't think I'd heard of the philosopher, Heraclitus or his quote about the man and the river before Sanditon and now it's embedded in my mind!  

Since I re-watch the show constantly, I'm always picking up on new angles and perspectives. I've written so much analysis of the show on social media and discuss it at length with a new friend I met through the fan discussions. We joked we had a two-person virtual book club about Sanditon.  After watching the end of Episode 8 a few times and trying to stomach that fateful cliffhanger, I kept thinking about two movies: Gone with the Wind and The Sound of Music. I had so many thoughts I wanted to record; my friend suggested I blog about it. I somehow remembered this old blog and after a 15-minute search I found it--happily or not, nothing on the web ever dies. It seems fitting to start the blog again about Sanditon.

A decade ago, I named the blog "Into the Sublime Seas" after my favorite quote from Emerson about diving into new experiences. The first (and only post sadly) was about Reading Lolita in Tehran, and I mentioned how Jane Austen was one of the authors discussed in the book. It all feels very serendipitous! I think it was meant to be to start it again with Sanditon, a story about new experiences set by the sea.  So next I'll write about those two movies I can't help but think about when I view Sanditon, Ep. 8.

I hope you'll come along for the journey.